Life, 1916-10-19 · page 11 of 42
Life — October 19, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical story about **St. Peter at the gates of heaven**, not a political cartoon. The illustration shows St. Peter confronting a woman who claims to have raised seven children with difficulty. The satire targets **dishonest claims about parenthood**. When the woman insists her children suffered greatly before arriving in heaven, St. Peter accuses *her* of actually raising them—implying she's taking credit for work she didn't do. He sarcastically suggests she "bathed and fed them" and "picked up the things that they dropped." The joke mocks people who exaggerate their hardships or take false credit. The byline credits **K.L. Roberts** as the author. Below are unrelated humor snippets about moving pictures and a spelling lesson.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PLEASURE AND A False Statement T. PETER removed the chain from the pearly gates and viewed the applicant cautiously through the aperture. “Your credentials, The applicant threw back his shoulders proudly. “I amily of seven children,” said he with calm con- “Three of them were clergymen, two were doc- he demanded imperiously. raised fidence. tors, one was a mi ry and one—a girl—wrote helpful anecdotes for a religious magazine.” “T see,” said St. Peter. “ You suffered sickness and pain when they were born, I presume, and endured months of mental torture before their arr} “Oh, no,” replied the applicant, sadly that.” “Hm,” observed St. Peter, thoughtfully, “Then it was you, no doubt, who bathed and fed them when they were little, mended their garments, taught them their prayers, put them to bed and soothed them when they started ery- ing at three or four o'clock in the morning.” “Well—er—no,” said the claimant with some hesitation. “Their—er—mother did that.” their mother did “Oh, yes,” smiled St. Peter, “but surely it was you who saw to their education, picked up the things that they HAPPINESS dropped around the house, listened to their childish trou- bles and comforted them in their woes?” “No—not exactly,” stammered the applicant mother did that.” At this St. Peter lost patien “ Their » for he had had a hard day.“ What did you mean, then,” he roared, " by saying that you raised a family of seven children? Their mother did that! Take the first turn to the left and go straight down And slaraming the pearly gates in the applicant's face, he made amends for his outburst by writing a note on mother- oi-pearl stationery, inviting the mother of the seven chil- dren to visit him indefinitely. KL. Koberts. One Beyond ILLIS: Do you think that moving pictures are the ultimate development of dramatic art? Gusis: No, There will be one more. On the legitimate stage you can get along with brains and no beauty; in the movies you can get along with beauty and no brains, and the next stage of development will be one where you can get by without cither. ACHER: Johnnie has spelled Now, Tommie, you may define it. Tomir: “Assess” is—er—“ asse: “assess” correctly, is a lady donkey. comicbooks.com